Thursday, August 14, 2008

Arirang: Noi's in Colonie has changed

Update (4/14/2010): We went to Arirang today and it was closed. From the circumstances, I suspect it may not reopen.-----Update: Arirang is the name of this new restaurant. We've been back a few times and the Korean food is good too. With good quality, reasonable prices, and a great location (for us), we expect to go a couple times a month for lunch.-------I wrote in the past about a restaurant that was named Mino's and then Noi's in Colonie. Well it's changed again.

I went with my daughter tonight on the way back from her Tae Kwon Do class. That led to a minor coincidence. We sat down and one guy working in the restaurant (I don't know the new name yet ... the Noi's sign is still up) looked familiar. A while later he introduced himself. He's Steve Kim, the owner of Kim's Oriental Shop, just down the road. That was a pleasant surprise, and it was also neat because I got to show off that my daughter can count to 10 in Korean. I've been an occasional customer at the store for several years.

Anyway, the food seemed similar to what they had in the past. They have some Thai dishes and Japanese dishes. We had a variety:

Edamame appetizer (soybeans served in the husk - you pop the beans out and eat them - the kids love 'em). This is something you find in Japanese restaurants and it was good. I think they served a larger quantity than most other places.

I had a Tom Kha soup with chicken (also called Tom Kha Gai in Thai restaurants). That was also good, maybe the best I've had in this area.

Daughter also had a miso soup. She liked it. I didn't get to taste it until it was cold.

Side salad was nothing special. Small plate with iceberg lettuce, served with a peanut sauce dressing (ginger dressing also available). Not bad, but no big deal either.

The entrees were excellent. Cashew Nut Chicken (I asked for non-spicy for my daughter - then she didn't eat any of it), and I had Macadamia Nut Beef. Both were very good, cooked with peppers, onion, the relevant nuts, and pineapple. The sauce for the beef had a particularly rich flavor.

They will be adding Korean food to the menu, probably next week. There was a large table of Asian men (I'm pretty sure they were Korean) and it looked like they got Korean food. I saw that they had Kim Chi (a pickled cabbage) and some yellow Daikon (a sweet pickled Asian radish) and got some of that.

Looking forward to going back when they add Korean food. There is only one other Korean place in the area that I know of (Ta-Ke near Albany Memorial Hospital).